


The Purple Flower

by unionforj



Series: The Purple Flower [1]
Category: Union J (Band)
Genre: Dubious Consent, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-12
Updated: 2012-11-12
Packaged: 2017-12-06 19:06:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unionforj/pseuds/unionforj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on this movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sH-ro9JkG8</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Purple Flower

“You’re being ridiculous.” Josh said stiffly, biting into his sandwich. Across from him, George was darting his eyes across the school’s canteen with nervous eyes.

 

“I am not, turn on your eyes!” George insisted, slamming his hands down on the table. The noise, which usually would have gotten them a few looks, didn’t do anything to disturb the peace in the large canteen.

“It’s winter, Georgie. People pair up to keep warm, its that simple.”

“Yeah, a few, maybe,” George hissed. “But not everyone.”

“You and I are still single.”

George narrowed his eyes. “You’re not listening to me.”

“I’ll listen to you when you stop trying to convince me that the jockey and his beaux are-“

“I’m not crazy!” George’s eyes went wide, and Josh swallowed nervously. He hated when George gave him that look. That look of need and desperation. “Just last month we could count on our hand how many guys were gay here-!”

“Okay, I get it!” Josh held up a hand to silence his friend. I know you’re not crazy. But George, think about it. Even if they’re doing something, what are we supposed to do?”

George literally deflated in front of him, realizing what he was saying. Josh swallowed sadly.

In actuality, Merion’s School For Boys’ had been, well, strange, lately. Usually, the only out gay students were forced to sit at the table Josh and George sat at, meaning Josh, George, and another boy named Eustace during their lunch break and two other boys that had the earlier lunch called Clarence and Boyd.

But Eustace was suddenly attached to one of the rugby players by the mouth, leaving Josh and George alone at the table, and Clarence and Boyd were now sucking face with two badminton players. And every one else in the school? They were snogging each other. It was like a virus had swept through the school, leaving everyone overflowing with testosterone.

Ironically, the homophobic boys had gotten boyfriends first. George had absolutely freaked out, thinking perhaps it was a trick, somehow. The brown-eyed boy was a bit paranoid, after being bullied out of so many schools. And it was quite odd. JJ Hamblett, the school’s best jockey and his best mate Jaymi, hand just gone up to them during lunch. There had been yelps, but neither George nor Josh could see what was happening. Next thing they knew, the entire Bible Club was snogging itself.

That had been the first time that Josh had seen the little purple flower JJ had been sticking in the button hole of the school jacket’s uniform. He had dismissed it immediately. It was just a flower, his girlfriend had probably gotten it for him. But George, ever so paranoid, hadn’t. He was certain it was some sort of prank, at first, to get them to do something as an excuse to beat them up.

But then more boys came out, and more, and more. They were all together, staring at each other with starry eyes and speaking of their boyfriends as if the sun rose and set for them. But then it spread to people that had no opinion on the matter. Random people.

And George noticed something.

“JJ and Jaymi goes up to someone, gets out that flower, and they go gay.” George maintained firmly, nodding his head as they darted around happy couples.

"A flower that turns people gay?” Josh had parroted with a quirk in his eyebrows.

“It’s probably not even a real flower!” George waved his hands around his ears, waving away Josh’s point. “It’s probably like a disguised squirt gun or something, but instead of water, it’s filled with pheromones or something, the love chemical, I don’t know. But there’s no girls here, so they can’t fall in love with a bird!”

“George, its JJ Hamblett and Jaymi Hensley.” Josh swung a comforting arm over the distressed younger male. George dropped his head down on Josh’s shoulders, shaking a little. He tended to work himself up with his paranoia. Josh had seen him go into panic attacks over it, and it was the scariest thing he’d ever seen. “JJ rides horses for fun. They’re not exactly geniuses, where would they get love chemicals?”

George took a few steadying breaths, and nodded.

He was calm for the rest of the day, but then the debate club got into a heated argument around JJ and Jaymi and ended up humping by their podiums. JJ and Jaymi looked “too smug to have nothing to do with it,” according to George.

“Maybe its hypnosis,” George’s knuckles went white with his grip on the table. Josh tossed his sandwich out, officially giving up on eating while George was in a state. He rubbed a hand on George’s back comfortingly. “They’re hypnotizing people, why would they do that? What do they want from us? I don’t want to be hypnotized!”

“They won’t hypnotize you.” Josh’s voice warbled on the promise. He knew something was happening, he wasn’t blind, but he also wasn’t stupid. He knew that it didn’t matter what was going on with their classmates. He knew that what mattered was that they couldn’t do anything.

“How do you know that?”

“Well,” Josh swallowed. “Well right now they’re just making the world homosexual, and we already are so what’s the point?”

“How can you say that?” George snapped. “They did it to Eustace! And Boyd and Clarence! We’re next! We’re next, what are we going to do?”

“Everything will be fine, George,” Josh gripped his lone friend’s shoulder.

“Stop saying that!” George yelled. He shoved Josh’s hand off of his shoulder and stood up angrily. “You keep saying that! That’s all you ever say and I’m sick of it!”

“George!”

“Don’t you ‘George’ me! You don’t know everything! You don’t know that it will be fine!” George grabbed his books, hissing and scowling.

Josh reached out, trying to grab George’s wrist, but George saw it coming. He yanked himself out of Josh’s reach and sneered, “Don’t touch me!”

“George!”

“No! I’m not a child, Josh! I can handle myself!”

George stormed off, running through the mass of hormonal teens. Josh went to go after him, grabbing his messenger back with ease, but two stares stopped him.

JJ and Jaymi, just a table or two away, watching him with calculating eyes. The blood in his veins rushed. His head spun a little on his shoulders. JJ and Jaymi waved when they caught him looking, and suddenly Josh was running, trying to catch up with George. But the bell rang, and all was lost.

***

George wasn’t really mad. Okay so he was a little mad.

He was furious. He knew that he had panic attacks, and he knew that they scared Josh, but it was no reason to just blatantly ignore the obvious to avoid upsetting him. George just wanted to talk sometimes. Sometimes he got sick of being placated. And Josh, as amazing a friend as he was, got too protective to not placate him. And sometimes it just got to be too much.

He wasn’t a child. He knew what everything will be alright meant. It meant the exact opposite.

George knew that JJ and Jaymi had something to do with it, with everyone turning gay, and he knew there had to be a reason. There was always a reason. There was a reason he had to change schools so often. There was a reason his parents split up. There was a reason that Josh understood his pain so well. And there was a reason that JJ and Jaymi were turning the entire school homosexual.

And he knew that he would have to apologize to Josh for blowing up at him in the canteen. Josh would apologize as well, but George wasn’t ready for it. He wanted to stay angry just a bit longer.

“Hey there.”

George looked up, his throat suddenly growing thick. JJ and Jaymi were smiling at him. George started to stutter, not knowing what he was trying to say but he could not help it. His mouth was running on its own, uncontrollable.

Jaymi stepped forward, eyes wide, and George stumbled back. “Hey, George, it’s alright! We were just- we were just…”

“We were worried!” JJ jumped in, glaring at his friend. Jaymi had one hand raised, aimed for George’s shoulder but it was moving so slowly, like he was trying to touch the head of a deer. “You usually walk with Joshy- Josh! You usually walk with Josh but we saw, in the canteen earlier you got in a fight.”

“Wh- what do you w-want?” George demanded. Their smiles faded, replaced with something sad. Then, quick as a snap, JJ got out the little purple flower that he’d been carrying around in his belt. George tried to back away again, but JJ was fast, and threw out his hand.

George wasn’t expecting a splash to the face. It felt like lemon juice in his eyes. “Ow! Ow, what the hell? Holy-!”

“It’s alright, it’s alright!” Jaymi said. Hands went to his cheeks, forcing his face forward. “Let me get that for you.”

***

Josh had been looking for George all day. George hadn’t been in class, and he wasn’t by his locker. And he was starting to get worried. He didn’t want to find George in the nurse’s office, again, because he worked himself up into another panic attack out of anger. He didn’t want to not be there when it happened, if it happened. He skipped his Maths class to go looking, to try and find his poor George, but George wasn’t in his Biology class, or anywhere in the halls. So Josh gave up, at that point George couldn’t be in the building.

Josh found him outside, almost immediately. His heart dropped into his feet, making Josh feel vertigo for a moment. Under a tree sat JJ and Jaymi, and there in Jaymi’s lap, was George, giggling like nothing in the world could ever be wrong.

“George!” Josh ran up to them, heart hammering in his ears. “What the hell?”

“Oh, hi, Josh!” George grinned, dropping his head back against Jaymi’s. Jaymi looked at him with wide, happy eyes. “You remember Jaymi, right? We had English with him last year.”

“What?” Josh felt his face, flushed from the jog, pale. George smiled widely.

“Jaymi asked me out. Naturally, I said yes.”

Josh shook his head. “What? No! No!”

“What is it?” George asked. “He’s an angel.”

“Oh, stop it,” Jaymi looked down in embarrassment. “You’re the angel.”

Josh was shaking. He forced his stare to JJ and hissed. “What did you do to him?”

“They didn’t do anything. I’m in love, that’s all.” George whispered, and leant into Jaymi, until they were kissing softly.

JJ stood up, his eyes guilty. “We didn’t hurt him, I promise.”

“George is giggling.” Josh pointed out, stumbling away. “George doesn’t giggle, he panics and freaks out and worries.”

“Maybe this is a good thing then. He’s happy, is that so wrong?”

“Yeah, it’s wrong! It’s not him!”

JJ looked down digging his feet into the ground. “We didn’t mean for it to got this far. Jaymi’s loved him since sixth form started, but- we didn’t want anyone to get hurt and then we found the flower- the bible club was an accident. I mean it wasn’t an accident we just got angry and we wanted them to feel love like we did.”

“You’re not making sense.” Josh stumbled back again, his foot twisted over a tree root. George was completely oblivious, smiling like a fool as Jaymi whispered in his ear. JJ pulled out the purple flower, twirling it between his fingers. He held the flower out, and something flew out of the center, landing in Josh’s eyes.

“Ow! Fuck!” He should have seen this coming. It tingled, it burned in his eyes, everything turning red behind his eye lids. Someone, JJ, grabbed his wrists, holding him steady as he stumbled about.

“It’s alright, it only hurts for a few seconds. I promise. Then you’ll be happy, like George. That’s all, it’s fine I promise.” JJ dropped his head until his and Josh’s foreheads were touching. “I would never hurt you, I swear. Can you open your eyes?”

Josh squeezed his eyes tightly a few times, before letting light breach his lids. He gasped in surprise. JJ had a halo, wrapping around his ebony hair. His heart thudded in his chest. He was beautiful. And then JJ smiled, and it was earth shattering,

“I love you.” JJ said, his voice cracking. “Ever since I first saw you.”

“I love you too.” Josh promised, wrapping his arms around JJ’s neck. “So much.”

It felt great, to hear Josh say that. He did all this, to have the blue eyed boy in his arms, but something hurt, deep inside. He knew, normally, Josh would be saying the opposite. But he could delude himself, for a few weeks at least, to let this continue. George Shelley, the most paranoid boy he’d ever seen, was laughing innocently in Jaymi’s lap, and Josh Cuthbert loved him. It couldn’t be so bad to let this continue.


End file.
